Happy Valentine’s Day! You know what that means, pay tribute to a strong woman OR use pink, red and white on your LO OR use a heart. Easy peasy, mac and cheesy! I knew I would use red or a heart or something. The question was, what would the subject be.
After much thought, I decided to use the photos of my houses in Flint, Michigan. Both houses are kinda red. It just made sense. I found a piece of red vellum in my stash. I think it was with a piece of green vellum… Must have been Christmas stuff not in with my Christmas stuff. I had a postcard that I sent home from Flint. Let me tell you, finding a Flint postcard is not as easy to find as you think it might be. Either that or I didn’t visit the right place. I’m thinking that was the problem.
But, I remember sending this postcard. We went to the big post office in downtown Flint. I’m kinda sad now that I didn’t go inside and try to get it postmarked. But, I just dropped it in the box. No Flint postmark. Darn. I found my heart washi tape, and made this cute little title. I actually put those thickers on pop dots so that they would be over the going. I wanted the home to be the focus. I added some flowers and hearts, it’s Valentine’s Day, right? Then, I felt like I needed something. A black border keeps everything on the page. Done, and done. I did the prompt!
It was really important to me to take my kid to Flint. Flint is a mess. The water is a mess, the blight is so sad. It’s not the place I grew up. But then, I think that our childhood memories are always a bit more rosy than things really were. What was amazing to me was that the houses I grew up in were still lived in. The owners were taking care of the houses. They were just as beautiful as I remembered. I really wanted to go into the house on Grand Traverse Street. But, it’s not my house anymore. There are other peoples things in there. I wanted Sean to see the two staircases. But, there was no point. I can’t imagine asking someone to go into their house because I lived there once upon a time.
I’m glad that now when I’m telling Sean stories about when I grew up, he has a point of reference. I’m glad he didn’t notice the blight. That’s the bonus of him having a phone. He wasn’t looking out the window when we were driving through the neighborhoods. We talked to neighbors at both houses. People were so surprised to see me. Looking at houses with my kid. I told them about the people who used to live there, and used to live around them. They were all so nice. Just like when I was growing up. Flint hasn’t changed. Good people all around.
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